A Ukrainian serviceman checks an armored personal carrier on the front line with Russia-backed separatists near Krasnogorivka in the Donetsk region, on Feb. 28, 2020. (ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP/Getty Images)
A fight for the identities of some 3 million residents of the separatist regions is underway, with Russia issuing 200,000 passports to residents — giving it a future excuse to intervene to “protect” them, critics say. Meanwhile, Ukraine has launched a new TV station to broadcast in Russian to separatist regions, aiming to foster a sense of Ukrainian identity. [
Part of the old Kremlin playbook – issue passports and then argue Russia must act to protect Russians. It goes hand-in-hand with the Kremlin nonsense of having to protect “Russian speakers.” RAM
]
“People are arrested [by the separatist side –
to be accurate the Russian side RAM
] for political reasons, like supporting Ukraine or blogging,” said Yevgeny Kaplin, from the nongovernmental organization Proliska, which assists civilians affected by the conflict. “They are being arrested for espionage and face up to 15 years in prison, or they are shot.”
One woman was accused of espionage for taking photos of her house and a stadium in Luhansk and posting them on Facebook last month, he said. “That woman has four children, and now she’s being held in a basement somewhere” in Luhansk.
Many Donbas residents who fled the war have since returned to the separatist regions because, seen as traitors by Kyiv, they could not find a house or work.
Oleksandra Matviychuk, of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, who works with prisoners, victims of torture and their families in the separatist regions, said as soon as prisoners were released, more people were arrested. Bus drivers coming from Ukraine were often targeted.
“
There is no guarantee on how to behave to avoid being arrested. You can be a fan of Putin and be arrested. Some people were arrested because they took a photo of a cafe. Some people were arrested for having a burn on their arm. Some people were arrested because they crossed the road in front of an official’s car, and the official didn’t like it,” said Matviychuk, who has documented thousands of cases of torture, abuses and sexual assault.
Increasingly, people were arrested and their families extorted for money, she said.
“They try to break people and to destroy their personalities,” she said.
Olesya Yakhno, an independent political analyst, said Russia’s issuing of passports to residents in the separatist regions and efforts to foster a Russian identity amounted to the slowing of annexation.
“Zelensky needs to define what is peace and what are the red lines. But the government lacks a unified strategic approach,” Yakhno said.
Russia's conditions
Moscow insists that elections in Luhansk and Donetsk should be held first, before control of the territories is returned to Ukraine — a provision in the Minsk Agreements, the cease-fire and peace protocols signed in 2014 and 2015. Kyiv rejects elections while the regions remain outside its control. [
The pathetic Minsk Agreement does also call for Russia to withdraw and for ceasefire which has never been complied with by Russia. It is absurd to consider elections while Russia is an occupying force. Indeed, there needs to be more than a withdrawal before elections can ever make any sense. RAM
]
“Ukraine will not agree to Russia’s conditions. A frozen conflict has become an option that many people in Ukraine actually support,” said Yakhno, adding that many feared that reintegrating the pro-Russian regions would allow them to block Ukraine’s pro-Western foreign policy.
[“Frozen conflict” - - there isn’t anything “frozen”, it is an on-going live fire war that Russia is conducting against Ukraine. RAM
]
“It would be impossible for parliament to approve a special status for Donbas,” she said. “Society would just march on parliament. War is still going on. It would be seen as capitulation.”
Putin disparaged the chances for peace in an interview with the Tass news agency last month, after Zelensky called for revisions to the Minsk Agreements.
In comments offensive to many Ukrainians, the Russian president questioned Ukraine’s language and even its identity, saying: “We are one and the same people. I don’t know whether they like this or not, but if you look at the reality, that is true. You see, we had no difference in our languages until the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. [
Putin lives in his own paranoid world feeding on his own warped view of history and almost everything else. It is important for everyone else to understand that and not accept any of his views as accurate. They need to be seen for what they are. RAM
]
“To talk about today or tomorrow we need to know history, need to know who we are, where do we come from, what unites us,” Putin said. [
Poor little fellow – sad. RAM
]
Bohdan Bondarenko, an analyst with the Center of Policy and Legal Reform in Ukraine, said there was no consensus in the country on what status the separatist regions would have and how to reintegrate them.
“Zelensky has a real desire to solve the problem. Let’s imagine that Zelensky gets agreement with Putin. Ukrainian society will not accept it. Our society will not agree. Society is very divided,” Bondarenko said.
But he said Russia is losing its appetite to support Donbas and would prefer to see it returned. [
If so, pretty simple, withdraw. Oh, but there is Putin. RAM
]
“They don’t need this Donbas. It’s costing them a lot of money. At this point, Donbas is more negative for Putin then positive. For Russia, the best thing would be if Donbas was inside Ukraine but with a special status. It would be an instrument for destabilization.”
But industrialized Donbas is an important economic asset to Ukraine, said an adviser to Kyiv’s parliamentary committee on Donbas and the occupied territories, Alexey Yakubin. Opinion polls indicate that Ukrainians want it back, but he said this called for compromise. [
One should not forget all the damage Russia has done to Donbas including to its infrastr4ucture and manufacturing capabilities. RAM
]
“It’s an opportunity to open a new page in relations with Russia, a huge market for Ukraine. But this compromise has its price. In my opinion, Russia wants to end this story. I think they see Zelensky as a window of opportunity because he’s willing to negotiate.”
Despite the complications, Zelensky recently set Moscow an unlikely December deadline for peace, speaking in an interview with the Guardian newspaper.
“He has very good intentions,” said Yakhno, the political analyst. “He wants peace. He doesn’t have good advisers.
“He wants fast results. But there is no quick result possible. In order to achieve peace you need time,” she said. [
Zelenkyy comes from the world of television. Television networks are ruled by over-night ratings, a frenzied schedule – I experienced this when I headed CBS’ Washington office. Governance is – certainly needs to be – pursued on a very different schedule. Overnight ratings are nothing more than overnight ratings. RAM
]
